The Forgotten Child
by Amber Granger
Summary: It's another year at Hogwarts. Professor Severus Snape thinks things are great, especially with Harry Potter out of his way, having left Hogwarts. But little does he know, a new girl starts and everything begins all over again... please read and review!
1. A new beginning...

The Forgotten Child - Part 1

The moon seemed larger than usual, almost taking up the whole sky. Rays of moonlight shining down on her, exposing her sleek, raven coloured hair. Her emerald eyes, sparkling like diamonds in the night sky. She begins to walk through the doors to the Great Hall, passing stone statues. As if she was aware that these were magical, and so could awaken at any moment, she only takes small steps, just as though she is walking for the first time.

The walls surrounding the Great Hall dazzled in front of her eyes. Flickering candles floating in mid-air, banners of different animals: a lion, a snake, a badger and a bird, each fluttering slightly as a small wave of air rippled from beneath it, but what caught her attention the most was the long table in front of her, where a man was sitting. 

'I take it you're Cassie. You're late! You've missed the ceremony, I suppose I can just as easily figure out which house you belong in though,' said the man. He looked strangely familiar to her, with his greasy black hair and scowl on his face, though she had never met anyone outside the muggle world. She couldn't help but smile at this odd looking man. 'What are you smiling about? Wait, never mind, we have more importing things to attend to. I'm Professor Snape, you will surely see me, I will be your potions teacher. Now then, lets see…' he gazed at her as if he could see right through her, then he pulled a face. A face as if something had come back to haunt him, and also of hatred at the same time. 'Potter…'

'Pardon sir, what do you mean Potter?' she said

'You…you remind of Potter, bad attitude towards school, always late, getting into trouble…'

'But sir, I've only just started. It's not my fault I turned up late, I didn't know where platform 9 and...'

'QUIET! I've had enough of your attitude already! I think you should belong in Gryffindor, which's where Potter was…you're the same you and him…too much alike,' with that he started to walk out through a door near the table. 'Excuse me sir, where do I go?'

'You stupid girl, how am I supposed to know that! I have nothing to do with your house or riffraff like you. I take it you were muggle born…parents both muggles I mean?'

'Actually sir, I never knew my parents.'

'Well, either way, find you own way there and stop calling me sir!' He left, slamming the door behind him, leaving only the sound of the large oak door reverberating around the room. Not knowing where to go, receiving no help from Prof. Snape, she wanders aimlessly through the enchanted corridors. The eyes of the antiquated portraits followed her, which caused her to stumble. 

Finding herself in a long dark corridor, she became aware of a soft glow, creeping out from under a portrait. Without thinking, she felt herself drawn towards the portrait, to her surprise, it moved, revealing a room. Entering the room, the glow intensified, giving her a warm comforting sensation over her body that she recognised, but wasn't sure how. There was a single bookshelf on the opposite side of the room, which was where the glow was emanating from. Cautiously, not daring to breathe, she approached the shelf, searching for the source of the glow. Waving her wand frantically, trying to make something happen, a book magically floated into the air. The golden inscription on the cover shone even more brightly in her eyes. 'Records, 1900-1999', the pages appeared to turn themselves over, one by one, revealing records of births of students from Hogwarts school.

'What do you think your doing in here!' startled by the voice, her eyes jumped up to find Professor Snape standing at the opening. His eyes looked black and cold, showing no emotion whatsoever. 'YOU! Getting into trouble already I see…20 points off Gryffindor for that! Now get to your common room, before I give you a detention!' he bellowed.

'Why is he so uptight?' she asked herself. 

'He's a teacher, what do you expect…especially with the scare recently of he-who-must-not-be-named. You're Cassie right?'

'Yes, I'm Cassie…who…where are you?' 

'Over here,' ahead of Cassie was the large portrait of the fat lady; the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. 'I am the entrance to your common room, Professor Snape said you would be on your way. The password is _fizzing whizzbee_, you must remember the password for when you want to enter the common room.' The picture swung open. She found herself in a dimly lit room, surrounded by a few other students. A girl approached her. Her silken, auburn hair shimmering, somehow, in the feebly lit room. Her deep, ocean coloured eyes stared at her in recognition. 'Hello, I'm Libby, I'm a first year too. I already know your name, your Cassie right?' How come everyone seemed to know her, yet she'd only just started. 'Follow me, I'll show you where your dormitory is.' She followed the girl up some stone steps, to a room.

Soon, she was walking down the corridor again, wondering how she got there. The golden glow as before, was in front of her but it all seemed different. The portrait opened by itself revealing the bookshelf again, but this time, someone was stood there, reading, it was Professor Snape. He looked up at her, 'what are you doing out of bed, I thought your mother told you to stay where you were.' This confused Cassie a lot. As he walked up to her, she realised he had grown about five times in height and was towering over her like a giant. He took her hand…

'Cassie, are you ok?'

'What?…oh yeah…I'm fine,' she answered. Libby looked at her worried. 'Sorry, I must have slipped into a dream-world or something,' and she smiled at this.

Next morning, she entered the Great Hall with her new friend. Suddenly looking up, she sees hundreds of owls flying above…owl post! Her owl could be spotted easily; it was pitch black with white rings around its eyes, hence why she called it Ebony. It dropped a letter into her hand, with scrawled writing on it that she had never seen before. Cassie quickly opened the letter, wondering whom it was from.

__

I will be back for you soon my child, but keep away from the one called Professor Snape. He will obstruct your path and your true course.

What did this mean? 

'So who was your letter off?' asked Libby. 

'I don't know, it didn't say.' She walked to her house table ready to have breakfast, unaware of what this letter meant and the things that were to come.


	2. Darkness

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Authors note: I DO NOT own most of the characters in this story - unfortunately the astounding JK Rowling has thorough control of them. The things I do own are the characters (Cassie, Libby, Ionie, Kaden, Maeve and Professor Obine) and also the plot.

'Good morning.' Cassie stared, looking for the man whose voice this came from. It was redeeming and melodious as he spoke, giving her a tingle over her body, telling her that no one can harm her while he is there. 'I take it we're all ready to eat.' Gold plates, shimmering so brightly that it lashed in Cassie's eyes, as if she was being whipped, suddenly appeared on the tables. There were servings of food…no…a feast, on each plate, big enough to fill even 30 giants, still leaving leftovers. 

'Who is that man at the teachers table?' Cassie wondered whether she had met him before as this tingling feeling was not new to her, she had felt it somewhere before, still unknown to her.

'That's Professor Albus Dumbledore, our headmaster. He's one of the greatest wizards of this century.' She looked back at Dumbledore, and noticed that he was unlike any of the other wizards. He had long sweeping silver hair and beard, that glimmered in the candlelight and half moon shaped glasses, which sat nearly on the tip of his nose crooked nose. 

As she was turning back to face Libby, she realised it wasn't her friend that had spoken, it was a boy. 'I'm Ionie. What's your name?' His golden hair looked like it had so much gel on that not even a chainsaw would be able to cut a single strand, and his chestnut eyes stared longingly into Cassie's, making her feel slightly uncomfortable. The tingling feeling that she had, had been swept away by Ionie's gaze.

'Cassie…and this is…'

'May I have your attention please. I would like to introduce our new teacher of the dark arts…Professor Obine. Hopefully he will stay with us a lot longer than the teachers in our previous years.' Prof. Obine raised himself up so that he was level with Dumbledore. He was fairly small in height, as was Dumbledore, with the most unusual hair, which stood on end to the very tip of each carrot-coloured strand. His eyes were a piercing green, with similar shape to those of a cat. Cassie began to realise that there was an empty seat at the table, and the only person missing was Prof. Snape…what was he up to and did she really have to keep her distance from him to find her true course? And also, what was her true course? These questions began to muddle around, in twists and chains, confusing Cassie a lot. 

'Also I'd like to welcome back a former Hogwarts student, who will be assisting Professor Obine throughout the year…Mr Harry Potter'

Total silence surged from every corner in the room. The only sound Cassie could here were her own thoughts, all the words still inextricable in her mind. 

'As we all know, Mr Potter has been through many ordeals recently to do with Voldemort…' gasps, most of which were from the students, mimicked themselves on every wall, at the sound of that name, but Prof. Dumbledore carried on talking, as if he hadn't heard these sounds of disbelief. '…so I hope that everyone will treat him with respect by not asking any questions about his past.' Dumbledore sat down and continued his discussions with Prof. Obine.

'I noticed you yesterday, entering our common room. I already know your friend, Libby. Her sister, Maeve, in 7th year, is on the Gryffindore quidditch team…'

'Quidditch? What's Quidditch?'

'Erm…It's a sport…sort of…you'll see. The quidditch matches start in two months, and Gryffindor needs a new seeker…never mind, you'll understand soon enough. Are you coming?' Ionie stared at her, waiting for an answer. He could tell that Cassie obviously didn't have a clue what he was talking about, by the look on her face.

'Potions class…with Professor Snape.' He spoke in a negligent tone, to make sure she understood this time. A muffled groan was heard from Cassie as she stood up from the table. Out of all the classes to have first, why his? She began to collect her things from the table, when she noticed the letter she had received. Abruptly, she concealed it in her robes, hidden from view. 

Finding her way to potions wasn't too difficult, if you don't count walking into the wrong classroom once or twice or knocking over a meagre amount of antiquated armour. Outside the potions room, a boy, who was equitably tall, started too approach them. 'Hi Ionie, who's your girlfriends?' Cassie uncontrollably gazed towards this boy, not taking her emerald eyes off him once, longing for him…but she was only 11 years old. She stopped staring at him with this, wondering what had come over her. 

'Hi Kaden. This is Libby and Cassie, they're in Gryffindor with me, and they're not my girlfriends. We only met today!'

'Whatever…I'm Kaden…' he looked at Libby and Cassie at this point, 'I'm in Slytherin.' Suddenly he looked up, above Cassie's head, 'Hello Professor. How are you today? We didn't see you at breakfast this morning.' His tone was more formal than when he had spoken to Libby, Cassie and Ionie. Then Cassie realised…Professor? She turned around very slowly to find Professor Snape breathing coldly down her neck. Her whole body went numb, so stiff that she felt fear surging up and down her.

'Get out of my way, and get in that classroom! NOW!' He marched off, vibes radiating and intensifying from his body of hatred. Then she remembered. When she arrived at Hogwarts, while in conversation with Snape, he had had the look of hatred in his eye, as if something was haunting him. Then he mentioned Potter…Harry Potter? But she was nothing like Harry Potter. She might have lived in the muggle world all her life, but it didn't stop her reading up about Lord Voldemort and 'the famous Harry Potter' and so she knew everything about him. Is that why he is upset, because Harry Potter has returned?

'Quick Cassie, before he tells us off again.' She took her baby steps again, as she had done on arriving at Hogwarts, scared of what she might find in the dungeon. She turned the door handle cautiously…then everything went black. 

Whether it was a really dark room that she had entered or whether she had her eyes shut, she did not know. Desperately trying to find some source of light, she rummaged through her bag for her wand, or what she guessed was her bag anyway. 'Right, come on Cassie think…' Without anyone to talk to she resorted to mumbling to herself. Her wand was held in front of her, she remembered when she waved it frantically without knowing what to do, and yet, made something happen. Maybe if she did that again, she might have a source of light this time. But before she got chance to move, a thin beam of light became visible ahead of her. Her feet started to move, speeding towards the light, her body following. Anxiously, she held tightly onto her wand, not wanting to let it go in case of danger, but then again, what would she do if she faced it? Cassie stopped next to the light. Realising it was an opening, and the only way that was possibly the way out, she reached towards the opening, and walked round the moss-covered wood, which, unmistakably, was once a door.

She began to feel cold, numb again, like she had when Prof. Snape was standing behind her. Her hands were shaking, was it fear, or just the fact that she was inconsiderably cold? She felt pain, so much pain, shooting through her as if sharp daggers were stabbing her from head to toe. Then the pain calmed and only focused on one point…her forehead. She fell on her knees with her hands thrusted against her head so hard, almost stopping her circulation. The pain died and Cassie collapsed in exhaustion. 

She tried to focus on something obscure in the corner of her eye. Realising, that nothing could be as bad as the pain she had just suffered, her head turned to see what was there. She couldn't believe what she saw and tried to blink, thinking it was all a dream. But was it? 'It can't be…it just can't.' With this she felt ice cold tears come from her eyes, pouring down her cheek, sending shivers through her.' She went to grab her wand, but it was gone. Fear now over-powered her, as loud sounds of a man speaking - too muffled to understand what he was saying, and then…she collapsed.


	3. Muggle Born?

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Authors note: I DO NOT own most of the characters in this story - unfortunately the astounding JK Rowling has thorough control of them. The things I do own are the characters (Cassie, Libby, Ionie, Kaden, Maeve, Shaylen, Brandon, Chas and Professor Obine, ok…practically most of the characters in my story then!) and also the plot.

Whoo hoo, my third chapter up and running…please R/R!

Chapter 3 - Muggle Born?

'No…No…I'm…'

'Are you ok?' Cassie opened her eyes to find three figures, silhouettes from the streams of light at the window, towering over her. 'Who…why were you saying "no" continuously?'

'What? Libby what are you talking about? Where am I?' She observed her surroundings, then turned back to the three figures. She became aware that the other two motionless figures with Libby were Ionie and Kaden. Off she went into a dream world again…

'Snap out of it!' It took Libby a while to get Cassie's attention again. A smile drew on her face. 'You still haven't answered me…are you ok or what?' 

'Yeah, I'm fine. Where am I?'

'Madam Pomfrey's room. You collapsed and…'

'No I didn't. I've been awake the whole time. I didn't collapse. Unless…'

'OK, you've had your time, now OUT! She needs to get some rest you know!' Cassie turned her head on the soft, cushioned pillow, to discover a woman. She guessed this was Madam Pomfrey.

'See you later,' they all said. She watched her friends walk out the door, and drifted away, slowly.

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'May I have permission to see her?'

'Of course you may. Dear me, the amount of times you've been in here the past few years Harry, you must miss it!!' A pleasing chuckle came from Madam Pomfrey. At this point Cassie decided to open her eyes, which was very difficult as they felt they had been stuck together with super-glue. When she finally opened them though, she jumped with shock. _'Harry Potter…it can't be…why has he come to see me?'_

'How are you feeling?' His voice was caring and subtle, as if he'd known her for years.

'I'm ok. Why did you want to see me, I mean, its not like I'm famous or anything unlike you!'

'Well, you see, strange things have been happening to you lately, and I as just wondering if there was anything I could explain or help you with.' He smiled at her, as if he were her brother. She began to feel safe and not alone for once.

'Erm…well, I've been getting weird daydreams which feel more like reality; letters from unknown sources; and blackouts into nightmares when they are not wanted. Can you explain any of that?'

'Not really, but it was worth a try!' They giggled quietly, so that Madam Pomfrey wouldn't here them. 'I here you weren't brought up by your mother and father, did you ever meet them?'

'No…never. I don't even know anything about my father. I know my mother fell pregnant with me at a young age, and she supposedly died giving birth to me, but that's about it. My stepfather told me that both my parents were born into this world, even though he had never met my father either.' Footsteps could be heard coming towards them. Cassie looked up to find Madam Pomfrey looking over Harry's head.

'Come along then Harry, I think you better leave Cassie alone to get some rest. We don't want you to influence her into getting in too much trouble all the time!'

'Bye Cassie. I'll see your Defence Against the Dark Arts Class.'

'Bye Harry, and thank you.' 

__

'Rest, that's all need, rest.' These thoughts seemed to make her eyes suddenly feel heavy. Soon she was in a deep sleep again…..

For the third time, she was back in the corridor, surrounded by the antiquated armour and paintings. The golden glow from the door shone on the mangled carpet, leaving a trail, enticing Cassie into the room once again. Twice before on entering the room, she had collided with Professor Snape. Hopefully, she thought, this would not happen again…as they say, third time lucky. As she entered, she noticed the 'Records 1900-1999' book, lying on the floor as if waiting…wanting her to open it. She walked cautiously over to it, slowly placing her hands on it. As soon as one hand touched, the book rose from the ground, leaving a blurred shadow underneath. Its pages turned quickly. Suddenly stopped, on the year 1990. _'This is the year I was born, but why?' _Moving closer to the book, her eyes then gazed across the page. She found her name, resting half way down. Everything seemed normal to her…..

__

Name: Cassie Taylor

Born: 6th May 1990

Mother: Lynda Taylor

As she read, she noticed the name of her father had been placed on the page. _How did they know who her father was?_ Her eyes glanced at the name. 'Wait, this must be some mistake. He can't be my father…he just can't…' mumbling to herself. Her body seemed to freeze with bewilderment. 'How can this be true I don't…' 

'Are you ok?' The weight on her eyes had been relieved as she felt someone shaking her. It was Madam Pomfrey. 'Thank god, you started to stir. I thought you'd fall out your bed if you kept going on like that. Oh yes, by the way, Professor Dumbledore has given permission for you to get back to your lessons now. He thinks you will be ok as long as we keep a close eye on you. Your friends are waiting outside the door.' Madam Pomfrey headed over to a boy on the other side of the room. Cassie threw the covers back and stood up, her legs feeling like jelly. Her hand reached for her bag, impatiently wanting to get back to her lessons. Her dream came back to haunt her again, _What if he is really my father. Maybe I should ask him?'_ Libby urged Cassie to hurry up, otherwise they would be late for Transfiguration class. Of they went, as if nothing had happened. Cassie somehow seemed to know that even more things were in store for her, what exactly though, she wasn't quiet sure of…yet.

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3rd chapter….finally. I know, this chapter was a bit boring, rushed and short but it was kind of vital, so if anyone thinks it was rubbish well, tough luck, THE STORY WOULDN'T WORK WITHOUT IT!!!!! ONE MORE THING: please R/R…..thanks for reading!


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